A President's Out-of-Body Experience

Yu Yuntao chimed in, “Right, right! A big man like you, how can you be troubled by such love affairs?”

As this pair of father and son reproached Renzi, and reminded him to not let his personal feelings affect his integrity as a man, they magnanimously forgot that between the two of them, one was famous for being afraid of his wife, and the other would never dare make a sound even when his boyfriend kicked him in the face. Of course, when they were outside, their images as tough men were unshakeable. Still, they were unable to hide from their family member, Renzi.

For these two men to say that “men should not be upset over love”, it was really unconvincing. As such, Renzi did not bother about them, and did not listen to their persuasions, only caring about his own miserable heart.

Yu Yuntao too understood that love was really quite a troublesome thing. One could not just throw his sadness away. Thinking that he could not persuade him, he carefully asked Renzi, “What exactly happened? Looking at you, it doesn’t seem like it’s just a simple rejection. What made you so upset?”

“I wanted to force a kiss on Brother Xiaoshan,” Renzi sobbed. “I’m the one in the wrong, I think?”

“Uhh...” Yu Yuntao’s first reaction was, “Are you even tall enough?”

“I went on tiptoes and even grabbed his collar to make him lower his head!” Renzi answered loudly, and felt extremely ashamed after that. “I don’t want to live anymore... I don’t want to live anymore...”

Hearing that, Yu Yuntao believed he had got the gist of it. “See, why did you touch people like this? He’s clearly unwilling! How can you do that?”

He again magnanimously forgot who had pinned Zhi Xuan down in the bathroom the first time they met, and who had pinned Zhi Xuan down onto the couch the first time he went to his place.

Renzi also reflected on it. “Yes, I know I was wrong. When He Jun did this to me, I banged him too!”

“Bang what bang,” Old Mister Yu pointed out his son’s wrong vocabulary usage. “Don’t use this word any old how!”

Renzi twisted his face away unhappily, falling silent.

Yu Yuntao gestured at Old Mister Yu, asking him to calm down, then tugged at Renzi, consoling him. “It’s not that you’re wrong, it’s just... Mn, you were overcome by your feelings.”

Yu Yuntao then asked, “So what happened next? How exactly did he reject you, making you so upset?”

Yu Yuntao’s impression of Gu Xiaoshan was that he always hid his cruel tongue under sugared words, even when facing someone he disliked, he could still remain courteous. He really could not imagine what sort of heartless words could Gu Xiaoshan say to Renzi.

“I would be fine if he wanted to scold me or hit me.” Renzi bit his lip, then choked, “But he, he vomited!”

Old Mister Yu could not help butting in. “So what about vomiting? That fake wine of yours, who wouldn’t vomit after drinking it?”

“That’s not it...” Renzi said. “He only drank a little. He’s really disgusted by me, he said it himself.”

Old Mister Yu did not believe him. “Bullshit, he can talk while vomiting?”

Renzi then explained, “He had told me before about the reason why he doesn’t believe in love. It’s the trauma his mother had left him, and made he feel that looking for love is an extremely disgusting thing, so that’s why he only treats affection as a game. Then later, my confession made him disgusted...”

Old Mister Yu was slightly stunned, and did not know how to determine the validity of this statement. Old Mister Yu had personally witness all the things Tang Guoguo had done. That child’s character had really shifted greatly because of his mother, and after that, Old Mister Gu also did not do much to help his child recover. Instead, he educated them like running a company, assessing their performances and evaluating them as a teaching method, and had never paid attention to his children’s emotional needs. To tell the truth, Old Mister Yu did find that his methods were not appropriate, but he could not step into another family’s matters. Occasionally mentioning it, he was also afraid of poking at Old Mister Yu’s sorrows. Also, he himself was not a model father, and was too embarrassed to admonish others.

So, when Gu Xiaoshan grew up to become a homosexual that was only interested in casual flings, Old Mister Yu was not very surprised, even thinking it was good enough that he had not become antisocial.

Yu Yuntao did not understand the situation, and he was the crude and careless type, so when he heard what Renzi say, he could not comprehend it. “Are you crazy?! Even if he felt disgusted, he wouldn’t actually vomit! I think it’s most likely all because of that wine of yours!”

Renzi buried his head in his pillow in reply, as though trying to suffocate himself to death, or trying to pretend that he could not hear anything.

Yu Yuntao sighed helplessly, and said he was going out for a smoke to calm down. Old Mister Yu then went with him to the balcony for a cigarette. Towards this “disgust”, Old Mister Yu talked about his view on the balcony. “You don’t have a full understanding of that matter then. Tang Guoguo’s actions, don’t talk about Gu Xiaoshan who was only a child, even Old Gu has a psychological shadow about it now, and doesn’t dare to think about love and marriage.”

Yu Yuntao never put much faith in Renzi’s words, but he could accept what his father said, and so was aghast. “That... that Tang Guoguo, she really...” Wanting to swear, but it would not be right, Yu Yuntao swallowed it back. “... She really is something!”

Old Mister Yu snorted. He also felt quite disgusted thinking about this woman. “Isn’t that it? In my opinion, this son had been screwed horribly by this mother, with this childhood trauma, it’s very normal for him to be unable to recover.”

“Although that’s the case,” Yu Yuntao was still in slight disbelief, “isn’t it too exaggerated that he actually vomited? This Gu Xiaoshan, although I really don’t like him — but think about it, over the years, how long is the queue of people confessing to him? If he vomits every time, wouldn’t he be half dead?”

Old Mister Yu nodded, puffing on his cigarette. “I feel that’s true. I also agree that this matter definitely has something to do with that bottle of wine. However, Renzi has also said that Gu Xiaoshan himself had said he was disgusted, this is the truth! That means, it’s the truth that there’s something wrong with the wine, and it’s also the truth that Gu Xiaoshan, like his father, does not dare to deal with love anymore.”

His words sounded logical, and Yu Yuntao digested it and finally have understood it. He nodded, “No wonder. I always felt like the the Gu family’s father and son were always a little strange with regards to this matter, so it turns out there’s such a backstory. Doesn’t mean that this can’t be settled easily?”

Old Mister Yu was also rather melancholic. Exhaling his smoke in rings, he gazed blankly into the sky.

Yu Yuntao sighed. “You say, what’s wrong with Renzi. Why doesn’t he want to be a proper straight man, and want to be gay instead. As a gay, he also doesn’t want to look for one that we won’t have to worry about, and instead look for a challenge! Now we’re both troubled as well, it’s even more troublesome that chasing our own partners!”

Old Mister Yu gnashed his teeth. “Exactly! If I were him, it wouldn’t have been so troublesome!”

“Exactly!” Yu Yuntao’s train of thoughts was in the same direction as Old Mister Yu.

As their method was not exactly very legal, they could not state it out loud.

Yu Yuntao suddenly spoke up. “Then... do you have a coin on you?”

“What year is this? We’re men of such stature, who would still carry dimes around?” As Old Mister Yu spoke, he unconsciously dug around in his pockets, and unexpectedly found a cold, hard dime — it must have been in his inner pocket for ages, he could not remember when he had put it there.

“This must be fate!” Old Mister Yu was quite surprised.

Yu Yuntao took the dime, weighing it in his hand. “It’s real... Head or tail?”

Old Mister Yu claimed “tail”.

Yu Yuntao flipped it up with his thumb. The coin spun in the air and landed firmly on his palm, the tail facing up. “It’s really fate!”

How surprising.

Old Mister Yu nodded his head. “Then we’ll do it!”

Lying on his bed, Renzi was feeling sentimental. He even had his phone in his hand, sometimes solemnly reading the main page of Gu Xiaoshan’s social media page, and other times sorrowfully looking at other accounts that shared his feelings. Old Mister Yu could not continue watching, and so locked up Renzi’s phone.

Renzi silently accepted his father’s actions, thinking that without his phone, he would not have the urge to message Gu Xiaoshan. However, on the second night, Renzi secretly went to the cabinet and tried to pick the lock. Because he was too clumsy, he was easily caught by his father. Seeing that his father was about to fly into a rage, Renzi quickly gave in, “I, I just wanted to see if anyone had texted me...”

Old Mister Yu scolded him. “Why do you care about this? As if there could be anything important!”

“So all my things are just trivial?” Renzi spoke in an extremely pitiful manner. His cheeks were gaunt. It made Old Mister Yu’s heart hurt looking at him, and so he was unwilling to scold him.

It was Yu Yuntao who came over after hearing the commotion, and could not bear watching it as well. He told his father, “Why don’t we unlock the cabinet and take a look. He’s already so old, why are you still confiscating his phone?”

Old Mister Yu was a little antagonised. He snorted, “I forgot to bring the key. You can ask it from the butler!”

“What key? It’s such a tiny lock! Only sissies need keys!” With a twist of his hand, Yu Yuntao broke the lock, opening the cabinet door and taking the phone out. He raised his brow, “Your Brother Xiaoshan really sent you a text.”

When Renzi heard it, he also flew over, his hands tight around his phone. He looked greedily at his screen. “Are you ok? I’m not feeling very well. Sorry, I was impolite.”

Renzi’s eyes darted about the screen, and realised it was a message from two days ago, and his heart ached, “I didn’t reply his message for 2 entire days?”

“Isn’t it just 2 days?” Yu Yuntao said. “You see, he sent you a text, you didn’t reply, and he also didn’t come looking for you.”

Old Mister too was filled with righteous indignation. “Exactly! This person is so rude!”

Renzi was startled. “I was the one who went to his place and tried to kiss him without considering his feelings, and made him vomited. Now I didn’t reply him for two days, how come he’s the one that’s rude?”

Old Mister Yu did not care for these details. “In any way, it’s all Gu Xiaoshan’s fault! If I see him, I’m going to beat him to death!”

At that moment, the butler prowled over elegantly like a persian cat, respectfully addressing all three of them. “Good evening. Young Master Gu is here for a visit.”

Old Mister was stunned for a moment. He had not expected such a coincidental thing to happen. It was still Yu Yuntao who managed to react faster as a young man. “Where’s the cane? Quick, bring the cane here!”

Gu Xiaoshan too had only just recovered, and the first thing he did was to return to his own Gu family estate. However for some reason, he might have absentmindedly chose the road to the Yu’s home instead. He then thought, since he was here, he might as well go in and take a look. He should also ask after him.

Without telling anyone, Gu Xiaoshan drove in. The security recognised him, and did not stop his car. When he walked in, the butler also welcomed him with a smile, and was friendly. “Young Master Gu, why did you come so late? If you were earlier, you could have joined them for dinner. At this time, Second Young Master Yu is probably asleep.”

Gu Xiaoshan was surprised. “So early? Is he feeling unwell?”

The butler was noncommittal, only smiling, “He seems to have some issues with his stomach. Why don’t I go and take a look if he’s asleep yet.”

Hearing that Renzi had issues with his stomach, Gu Xiaoshan then roughly understood the situation. This fool must have really fermented the wine into poison! In the future, he would definitely not let him into the kitchen — when this thought emerged in his head, Gu Xiaoshan himself got a shock — what was he thinking about?!

When the butler went to look for Second Young Master Yu, it happened that Old Mister Yu and Young Master Yu were both there, and so he informed all three of them. That way, he could also save himself the trouble of walking back and forth.

Gu Xiaoshan was sitting in the living room. He had already been here many times, and had lost count of how many times he had sat on this sofa. However, this time, he had a rare feeling of being at a loss on how to proceed, and his palms even started sweating slightly. He should also ask himself what was going on with him, had he not recovered fully from his gastroenteritis?

He heard muffled but steady footsteps coming from the stairs, it clearly did not come from his nimble-footed Yu Yunren.

Gu Xiaoshan stood up, and was not surprised to see Old Mister Yu.

Behind Old Mister Yu was Yu Yuntao.

Gu Xiaoshan was somewhat startled, as even if Yu Yuntao was at home, he would rarely come to see him on purpose. After all, they both mutually disliked each other. Now, the always blunt Yu Yuntao was now smiling and walking towards him, placing his arm around his shoulders and chuckling, “What a coincidence! We were just talking about you!”

What Gu Xiaoshan was even more unused to was Yu Yuntao’s smile. His white teeth shone brightly, and it looked a little frightening.

Old Mister Yu too chuckled. “Ah, come, let’s take a seat in the dining room!”

Under such baffling circumstances, Gu Xiaoshan was led to the dining room, then unprepared, he was forced onto a chair by Yu Yuntao. He turned his head, only to see Old Mister Yu close the door to the dining room with a smile.